Additive-free porous assemblies of Ti3C2Tx by freeze-drying for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Ti3C2Tx has shown great potential in energy storage filed, but the restacking between Ti3C2Tx nanosheets seriously hampers the maximization of its capacitance. In this study, we rationally designed and synthesized porous Ti3C2Tx assemblies without any additive by introducing ice as spacers using a facile freeze-drying method. The porous Ti3C2Tx assemblies have a three-dimensional network structure, which consists of ultra large Ti3C2Tx lamellar walls and lots of macro- and mesopores. It has been proven that there are more -O groups on the surface of the porous Ti3C2Tx assemblies than the Ti3C2Tx film. The porous Ti3C2Tx assemblies deliver a maximum areal capacitance of 1668 mF/cm2 when the mass loading is 8.4 mg/cm2, an optimized specific capacitance of 247.2 F/g when the mass loading is 5.3 mg/cm2, and 87% capacitance retention over 10000 cycles. The symmetric solid-state supercapacitors based on the porous Ti3C2Tx assemblies show an areal capacitance of 355.8 mF/cm2, the maximum power density of 50 mW/cm2 and an outstanding flexibility under different deformation.